Next Monday, Oxford University is expected to decide whether or not to rid its £2bn endowment of risky fossil fuel investments.
This decision comes after almost two years of student organising, academic and alumni petition drives, marches, rallies, and teach-ins. As someone involved in the campaign, it is incredibly gratifying – and a little scary – to finally reach this point.
That we have reached this point is thanks to the growing momentum of the international fossil fuel divestment movement and the combined mobilising efforts of people across Oxford.
The idea of fossil fuel divestment, seemingly a radical pipedream just a few years ago, has taken hold remarkably fast. From Stanford’s decision to divest from coal to the Rockefeller heirs’ commitment to move their oil fortune out of fossil fuels, the dominoes keep falling. Each new win makes it that much easier for our Oxford campaign to argue that divestment is not a fringe notion; rather, it is something that a reputation-conscious institution can sign up to, and even garner mainstream praise in the process.
Inspired by all the international activity, we launched our Oxford campaign with a scrappy motion to present at the student union council. Since then, we’ve faced a steep learning curve.
We’ve worked to mould our demands into something that the university will not reject outright but that still challenges it to take meaningful steps on a road to full divestment. This effort culminated in a lengthy report, which calls on Oxford to immediately drop all direct investments in coal and tar sands, the most polluting of fossil fuels. It also recommends that Oxford continuously review all investments, and so, progressively rid its endowment of fossil fuels and other high-carbon assets.
The report certainly helped our campaign gain credibility in the eyes of the university. The real momentum, though, came from the dozens of debates in college common rooms, speaker events with Oxford professors, rallies, and ‘carbon bubble’ parades on the highstreet, not to mention dinosaur fossil costumes. Through all this, the campaign gained the support of over 100 academics, nearly 550 alumni, and over 2,200 others, as well as 27 college common rooms and the Oxford University student union.
The numbers don’t capture the feel of the campaign, though. The real drive has come from talking about climate change not as some hopeless crisis, but as a challenge we can do something about. It has been a learn-as-you-go process with panel discussions that stretch on for hours and people previously distanced from climate change issues talking excitedly about the possibilities.
The very idea of divestment catches people’s attention, inviting new, challenging questions: what happens to our carbon-intensive global energy system? And what about the pervasive influence of fossil fuels on our politics and wealth distribution?
On the flip side, many people are beginning to get excited about a less centralised, more affordable access to renewable power, less environmental degradation with cleaner water and healthier land – especially for the more vulnerable frontline communities. As so aptly captured in the title of Naomi Klein’s new book, tackling the climate crisis ‘changes everything’.
Of course, fossil fuel divestment is a small part of a much broader climate movement, but even so, it has helped unite disparate parts of that larger campaign.
Oxford is a small-scale example of this uniting effect. The support of academics and alumni aside, the student campaign would not be where it is now without the help of the Oxford city campaign. The city group, in turn, introduced us to campaigners in the church, trade unions, and the Art not Oil performing arts coalition. Beyond Oxford, we’ve been in touch with other students at Soas, Cambridge and UCL, and shared a platform with Natalie Bennett of the Green party at a recent panel discussion. We’ve also had support from People and Planet and 350.org, who’ve taught us a thing or two about how to mobilise.
If the university divests, it will add to the critical mass of institutions that are demonstrating how to invest in a liveable planet. It will also multiply tenfold a message that is already sinking in within Oxford itself: that we need a new common sense, one where climate change is a top priority.
- This article was amended on 13 March to correct the value of the university’s endowment from £3.8bn to £2bn.
